After all, Ukraine doesn’t have as many rare lands as Trump found

Wealth is there, but it has not yet been explored – and nothing guarantees it may be. Was the agreement proposed by Trump a “nonsense”? Analysts believe yes, and the thousands of millions promised may be just an illusion.

Ukraine holds substantial deposits of 22 of the 34 elements that the EU classifies as “critical raw materials”. Thus ensure the data on the UN and Kiev. The United Nations estimated, before the Russian invasion, that 5% of all critical minerals of the earth’s crust were in Ukraine.

“Ukraine occupies 0.4% of the earth’s surface, but has about 5% of the total amount of critical raw materials,” said Svetlana Grinchuk, Ukrainian Minister of Environmental Protection and Natural Resources.

Although it has one fifth of the world graphite deposits (used for example in the manufacture of electric cars), titanium and some uranium, it is far from the large countries holding these minerals.

But, according to, ”at the end of last year, Roman Opimakh, former director-general of Ukraine’s Geological Service, acknowledged that“ unfortunately, There is no modern assessment of the reservations ”.

Not even the US government itself, through its geological service, cites Ukraine on the list of countries that have significant amounts of rare land. China appears on this list with 40% of the reserves, and Vietnam and Brazil with about 20%

So why the Trump fever with the rare Ukrainian articles? The agreement that presupposes the delivery of the exploration of part of the Raras lands of Ukraine to the US, in exchange for military support.

This week, Trump dropped the initial demand for the US to be entitled to $ 500 billion (about 475 billion euros) from the extraction of these materials, but is still allowed to extract Ukraine millions of dollars in rare materials. But wealth applies not to be that great.

“There is only burnt land”

“Although Ukraine has a variety of mineral deposits, It is not rich in viable and scalable rare land sites. We know that, ”writes Ellie Saklatvala, Metal Analyst, British raw material consulting firm.

“Ukrainian deposits were not studied in depth, in part because the mining industry gave priority to other immediately available (and profitable) deposits, such as iron ore, coal and titanium,” he explains. “That’s why, it is possible that more, but not with a half -trilia of dollars (476 billion euros) ”.

According to the analyst of Javier Blas, “Ukraine has no significant deposits of rare land, as well as small scandal mines.”

What’s more, even if Ukraine produced 20% of the rare lands around the world, “this would be about $ 3 billion a year. To reach the $ 500 billion proposed by Trump, the US would have to ensure over 150 years of Ukrainian production ”assures the expert, who nicks for the idea a “pure nonsense”. “What is in Ukraine is burnt earth,” he concludes.

“Propaganda”, promises and… illusions?

“A Rare Land Advertising Ukrainian began with the Ukrainians themselves. Desperate for finding a way of involving Trump, ”Javier Blas justifies.

According to, the Ukrainian government admitted that “it is known about the existence of rare land metals in six deposits”, but 286 million euros would be needed to develop the deposit from NovoPoltavske, “one of the greatest in the world.”

Ukrainians also promise they have “one of the largest lithium deposits in Europe,” but they add that it is not yet extracted.

“Ukraine has several deposits that contain elements of rare land”, but None of them were still explored, Elena Safirova, specialist of the US Geological Service.

The S&P finance company also points out that the concentration of rare land in the country can be too low or difficult to access. That is, “deposits of rare land elements of Ukraine may not be profitable to extract.”